Phenom II X4 980 BE processor review -
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On the next few pages we'll show you some photos. The images were taken at 4272 x 2848 pixels and then scaled down. The camera used was a Canon 450D - 12 MegaPixel.

Here we have the new X4 980 BE. The package looks similar to the million other Phenom processors we've tested (from the outside). This new SKU is located under product code HDZ980FBK4DGM tagged with a suggested retail price of 195 USD. Whot? you don't believe me on the SKU code? Look below my man.

This particular version is a Black Edition processor (BE) which comes unlocked meaning we have an open multiplier to play around with, which greatly helps for more flexible and easier overclocking, overclocking on the baseclock/bus simply is quite hard.

You'll purchase a lot of processor for the money as the overclocking potential definitely increased with this latest stepping. As we'll show you later on we quite easily reached 4.3 GHz on a cheapo OCZ Vendetta CPU cooler.

Socket 941 better known as Socket AM3 is a CPU socket for AMD processors. It follows directly from Socket AM2+. AM3 was launched February, 2009, alongside the initial grouping of Phenom II processors designed for it. The sole principal change from AM2+ to AM3 is support for the AM3 processors' integrated memory controller, which supports DDR3 in addition to DDR2.

A lot of AMD 700 series chipset based products will work with this processor as well after a System BIOS update. Obviously the new 800 series works straight out of the box.

And the test bed today, this is the ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard. It's AMD 880G based and is pure value for money with all the latest gadgets.

Phenom II X4 980 BE processor reviewAMDs current Deneb core over the past year and a half has been optimized and fine-tuned in many ways. As such, and honestly completely unneeded, AMD did decide to make their fastest Phenom II X4 processor even a slight bit faster, yes today they release their Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor, which clocks in at chill 3.7 GHz at default.

Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition reviewToday two new products are launched by AMD, and here at Guru3D we'll review the fastest one. Let's have a peek first as to what AMD has got prepped for you with the right pricetag. It is that Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition we are interested in, clocked at 3.6 GHz.